Board Game Analysis: Super Dungeon Explore

Introduction

This will be my second board game analysis for the Advanced Game Design course and this time I will be analyzing Super dungeon explore. In order to get a better understanding of what this board game does well and what could have been done better I will be breaking it down and analyzing it’s systems as well as components.

Super dungeon explore is a turn-based table-top dungeon crawler game for up to 6 players were you either play as a hero or the evil consul. The hero objective is to survive long enough to make the consul spawn its boss and later defeat it to win the game. The consul’s goal on the other hand is to effectively hinder the heroes’ progress and subsequently defeat all heroes present on the board.

The good

One thing this game does really well is that it presents lots and of drama throughout the game, and especially towards the end. It’s a constant fight between who has the upper hand, and the advantage one player side has gained can easily be switched over to the other within a second. The thing that contributes to this is the frequently used and most prominent dice rolling mechanic.

Dice rolling plays a huge part in this game because it’s integrated in the attack and damage system. Every time the player wants to attack, a dice roll with the corresponding color and number of dices shown under “attack” on the character/monster card is played. The same happens when a player defends its character, a dice roll is played but with the corresponding color and number of dices shown under “armor” on the cards. If the attacker rolls a higher number than the defender, one damage is done on the defender character. There are instances where no dice needs to be rolled when defending. This happens when a character only has a gray colored dice icon with set number as armor. In order to do damage, the attacker needs to roll a dice roll higher than that number.

Dice rolling is also used when the Consul and the heroes have to roll for initiative. When rolling for initiative they’ll be using the characters/monsters with the best dices shown under “will” on their character cards. The player side with the highest rolled number gets to start the round first. Another interesting thing worth to note is that you can tweak your dice rolls by spells or by acquiring loot cards.

The dice rolling contributes to the drama because it’s so unpredictable. You will not know if your attack will fail or if you will be able to defend yourself from an enemy attack. You won’t know who gets to start first at the beginning of each new round. You only know how high or low your chances are with the dices presented. One would think that the randomness of the dices would only annoy the players since there is no way to plan around it. But on the contrary, I think it adds so to the tension and suspense of the gameplay. The dice rolling can go either way which gives hope for players who crave for a comeback from a bad place. The game presents unpredictable outcomes that keep every player on the tip of their toes and at the edge of their seat.

The bad

I believe the worst side of Super dungeon explore is the loot system. As a dungeon crawler you’d expect to have more options to acquire loot, or at least obtain loot faster. The loot system does only apply to the hero players of the game. The unfulfilling loot system really shines through when you are the only hero player left in the game and the only goal left is to survive.

Within the game, there’s a loot counter which moves one step for each damage done to the Consuls monsters. On the loot counter a set amount steps need to be taken in order to draw a loot card. The loot cards are sometimes really helpful to the heroes; it can buff up their dices, the armor and attacks as well as add spells. Found within the loot card deck are a small amount of resurrection cards that are helpful if one hero is defeated. If no one wants the loot card drawn, it can be sacrificed in order to either heal one heart’s worth of one character or heal a status effect.

The loot cards can be really helpful for the hero characters so why do I think the loot system is the worst side of the game? The answer is because of the way it’s balanced. One reason for that is that when you really need the loot cards the game fails to provide it. I’m talking about when you are the last hero character left in the game and you could really use a resurrection card or any other buff found in the deck. Since the loot counter only moves when a hero character does damage to a monster, and not like the Power meter which benefits the Consul and moves when both parts do damage, it might seem a bit unfair. You won’t be doing enough damage when you are the only hero player left because the risks are too high and you won’t be having enough actions to do so. Even if you have accomplished in making 3 successful hits, the loot counter needs 4 hits each time in order to allow you to draw a loot card. And at the end of your only round, the loot counter will reset whilst the Consul’s power meter won’t. I will talk about the power meter further into my analysis.

The most interesting system: Spawn system

The most interesting system in Super Dungeon Explore is the Consul’s spawn system. It’s so cleverly balanced that it makes way for much tension, drama and interesting gameplay for both the heroes and the Consul.

At the start of the game the Consul gets to place 3 spawn towers in each dungeon room where all monsters, including the mini-boss, will be spawning. The Consul has a certain amount of skull points that will vary throughout the game that can be spent on placing its monsters around the spawning points. The further you get into your game session you will notice how important the spawn towers are and that its role is not only to spawn monsters, but that it plays a big part in the inevitable boss battle.

At first, it might seem that the monsters and the amount being spawned are the real threat to the hero players because they are the ones doing damage and that the focus should be on defeating as much as possible before actually damaging the towers. But because of the way this system is balanced this is will cause more problems later for the heroes. Present in the game world is a power meter that ticks up each time a subject takes damage or dies. When the power meter reaches its max, the super strong boss will be spawned. If you as a hero only focused on killing monsters and subsequently speeded up the power meter, you will have a boss chasing you and more monsters spawning from the towers you didn’t destroy each turn the Consul plays.

Even if the Consul only has one single spawn tower left, that spawn tower will make all the difference regarding the heroes’ chances of surviving and winning or not. Integrated in the boss’s behavior is that if a spawn tower is still in game, the boss will be able to be activated 2 times each round instead of 1 and thus making it harder for the heroes to survive.

The spawn towers do also add an element of surprise to the hero players. The heroes will not be able to plan ahead their next moves because they won’t know what will be spawned and where.

Target audience interpretation:

The recommended age group on the box of this game is 11 years of age and up. I have to agree with that because this game doesn’t contain much violence and adult topics. This game is basically a table top version of a dungeon crawler RPG, which I’m sure many 11 year olds and older are already playing online. It is easy to understand and the art as well as models appeals to all ages. The only thing that might be somewhat of a turn off for new players is that the game contains a lot of components and it might seem to be a lot to take in, but you’ll catch on quickly enough.

Conclusions

Super dungeon explore is an overall well balanced game with interesting systems and mechanics that leads to a dramatic gameplay experience each time you play.  Even if you lost you felt like it was satisfactory because the battle never short of intense.

The game is designed that way that the Consul might seem a bit overpowered because of its extremely powerful mini-boss and final boss it can spawn. So if you are playing this game for the first time I would suggest playing as the Consul if you really want to win badly. A member of my group, who is also an avid player of this game, said that he’d never seen the heroes win the game. I believe with enough practice and skill you can win against the Consul. But that’s probably the only way for the heroes to win because of the way the game is designed.

I believe it’s the challenge that keeps players playing this game. The game provides enough positive feedback so you do feel empowered and want to get even better. You keep playing because you want to win against the powerful evil Consul and prove everybody wrong. This is what happened to me and I will continue playing this game even after this analysis is written because I enjoyed it so much.